Dive Details

Location

Date

08 December, 2013

Time

9:42am - 11:09am

Details

According to the forecasts, conditions were meant to be better on Sunday than they were on Saturday. We didn't look at The Leap but others said it was not diveable, not that we were planning on diving there. The Steps looked more like a washing machine than it had the previous day but there were no really big waves. I was also wearing a wetsuit for the first time in a number of months.

We jumped in on the rocks to the left of the normal entry point to avoid the washing machine. Sheree wanted to see if she could find "Little Andrew", the tiny painted angler, and "Big John", the orange form undescribed angler, so we initially headed towards The Leap. On the way we saw a weedy seadragon. The was too much particulate matter in the water for photographing weedy seadragons. At the location of "Little Andrew" and "Big John" we looked around but could not find them.

We turned and headed back towards The Monument. Before passing The Steps we saw another weedy seadragon or perhaps the same one as before. On the way to The Monument we saw a male weedy seadragon with eggs. The eggs looked fresh. Again, the visibility was too poor to attempt a photograph.

We stopped to look for "Little Sebastien", the yellow painted angler, but could not find it. We continued on to look for "Oliver", "Jean" and "Beverley". Sheree found "Jean" in the same spot I'd seen her the day before and then found "Beverley" fairly close to where we'd last seen it over a month ago.

Both Sheree and Jani were getting cold and so they headed back. I wanted to push on to see if I could find "Angus" again. I swam to the corner looking for previous anglers and then around the corner and along the wall looking for the landmark I'd seen the previous day. Once I hit the landmark I dropped down the wall and found "Angus", the tiny orange angler, immediately. For some reason its eye was really large. After tanking photos of "Angus", I headed back up the wall and along the wall to the break in the kelp and swam to the beach where I exited.

Buddy

Sheree Papuni, Jani Saarinnen

Seas

Rough

Visibility

2-3 metres

Duration

85 minutes

Maximum depth

13.0 m

Average depth

10.1 m

Water temperature

18.4°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEDT

Note that tides at dive site may vary from above location.

High

1:18am

1.40m

Low

7:02am

0.48m

High

1:22pm

1.73m

Low

8:08pm

0.28m

Camera gear

Camera

Nikon D7000

Lens

Nikon AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8D

Housing

Ikelite 6801.70

Lens port

Ikelite Flat Port 5502.41

Strobe

2 x Ikelite SubStrobe DS161

Photographs

Depth information, where present, indicates the depth of the camera when the photograph was taken and can be used to approximate the depth of the subject.

Undescribed angler ("Jean"). 10.6 m.
 

Nudibranch, Hypselodoris bennetti. 11.3 m.
 

Undescribed angler ("Beverley"). 11 m..6 m.
 

Tiny painted angler, Antennarius pictus, ("Angus"). 10.5 m.